My Next Trip, Part 3

I have a lot of thoughts about future trips. I love to  take the overnight and tour the full day. Boston is a favorite trip, for this. A nice excursion involves Chicago to Memphis. Memphis has a hanging monorail, which is unique. From Cary, NC just take the Carolinian or Silver star to Washington and the overnight Capitol Limited to Chicago. One problem, the layover time means  Washington, overnight. There are a few other way, like going to NYC and transfer to the Lake Shore Limited. I came up with unique trip.

Take the Star or Carolinian to a transfer point for the northeast limited, overnight to Boston. There are several places to do the transfer. In Boston, wait a few hours and take the lake shore from Boston to Chicago. Instead of a motel room in Washington, sleep on the train. From Boston another overnight to Chicago. In projection would have me spend the day in Chicago touring. Than the overnight to Memphis to spend the day. Two overnight train trip going. Sleep on the train. That night return overnight to Chicago, spend the day in Chicago and overnight to Manasas, Why Manasas, you think? First, Take the Cardinal from Chicago would still mean an overnight stay in DC. Instead, stop in Manasas for a cheaper room, but still on the commuter rail line to DC. There we have a number of options for trains, including the Virginia Railway express, the Crescent.

I have been slow in taking my next trip. Now the holidays are upon us so I need to wait til after New Years. I will take my traditional trip to Richmond, VA. I do this around the First and I go to church that first Sunday of the new year. I go back to the church I attended before I became a pastor. The first Sunday was the most ideal time for a pastor to leave his congregation behind. He/She cannot go anywhere between Thanksgiving, and Christmas, because of all the church activities going on. Now, as a retire pastor, I still have family things to take care of, so I still put things off. However, the holidays are not a good time for exploratory travel.

My Next Trip, Part 2

I moved from Boston because of a girlfriend. She was an old girlfriend which I ran into, about a month before moving to Boston. She ask that I keep in touch. After settling in Lynn and about six months later, I was contacting old friends to let them know where I was. She was the only one who answered. A few months of writing, she came to Boston to see me and I made a trip back to Virginia to visit family and visited with her at the same time. I moved from Boston to be closer to her and her daughter, who she shared custody with. So, less than a year later I move from Boston. Because of the circumstance, I tried to tell myself that I did not like Boston. It was 25 years before I went back for a visit in 2010. I took a week off for this trip. I took Amtrak to Boston and took mostly the subway and commuter rail, to the places I wanted to see.

These were the days before Internet and personal computers. In exploring the area before and during my visit, I relied on maps and tourist information so I missed seeing a number of places, because I didn't know about them. I had more interest in returning to places I was familiar with while living there

I moved to a town near Hamlet, NC and put Hamlet and Boston into the website to see how they would take me to Boston. They recommended the Silver Star to Washington, DC and the overnight Northeast Regional from Washington to Boston. It is about an 7 and half hour layover in DC with leaving DC after 10 PM. I used an alternative by making the layover in Alexandria, VA. This lessened the layover by about almost an hour and but the station closed before the train arrived. I spent this layover touring the Washington, DC area.

I stayed near Copley Square, around the corner from where I worked, 25 years before. I did rent a car one day so I could take in the north shore where I lived. That gave me the ability to see High Tower and Lynn woods, in Lynn. I took a drive to Fort Independence in south Boston.

Just for fun, after getting home, I looked a planning a day trip in Boston. I would take train overnight to Boston and return over night. I would arrive early and just spend the day. I laid out a day of train watching, mostly north station trains and a piece of all 4 subway lines. I eventually took that trip. In thinking about another trip, I chose other, more I may decide to heading through Downtown Crossing and going to the commons and surrounding. Copley was nice along with the Prudential Center. Adding a lot of tourist sites and less trains.

My Next Trip, Part 1

I keep thinking ahead to future excursions. I have spent some time exploring the possibility of Florida as a destination, for one of my one to five (seven) day excursions. My first excursion plan included north Florida from Tampa back to Jacksonville. Some years ago, I drove the northern Florida train watching route and watched the streetcars and airport people mover, in Tampa. When I arrived in Orlando, it was Sunday and the commuter rail did not run on Sundays. So, on to Jacksonville and learned that their monorail did not run on Sunday, as well. So a return to north Florida would be nice. Another trip would be Miami, but that is a full day, and not over night, travel, from Orlando, Tampa or Jacksonville. It has some good things to see. There is the airport transit, the light rail (third rail metro style), downtown people mover, and commuter rail. Instead of taking the train, I could fly on the long hauls and watch from their. However, if I wait a few years, Brightline will be finished between Orlando and Miami. It is now in Miami and runs to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. I would be a wonderful train to watch and ride.

Recently, I have been thinking about Boston, again. My first experience in Boston was unintentional. In 1978, I took visit of New England, with the plan to bypass Boston, and visiting Plymouth. I had a problem with directions, so I pulled off the turnpike and found a place to park. It so happens that that place was overlooking the train shed of South Station. I did not know it at the time but learned it, later. I did got some nice railroad pictures. At that time, you could see anything run on Amtrak and Boston commuter rail. Thus an Amtrak pulled by a D&H diesel or on old BM pulling commuter rail could be seen.
My first intentional experience was when I first went to Boston to attend a work seminar in 1982. As I was waiting for the train to take home, I went to Downtown Crossing with another participant. We went to the department store so he could buy a souvenir to take home for his kid. The department store is still there, according to google but it has change names after a merger.

That summer I answered a notice about a job in Boston and moved that October. I first lived at the YMCA near where I worked, for about a month and than moved to a sublet in Cambridge, rented initially by a co-worker. I finally moved to the North Shore, three blocks from Central Square and train station, in Lynn (Lynn, Lynn, city of sin....lol). I did some train watching as well as touring, during that year. Of course there are traiins, both near South Station and in Lynn. Still, anything would be running. Note that old BM RDC's were used as cars. The motors had been disabled and using only for heat.
Besides trains, I did enjoy the sights of Lynn. It is remarkable that the only pictures. taken in Lynn, was those of the Goldfish pond a few blocks from where I lived. It was a nice place to go to just relax. It was not until I visited back that way that I took other pictures. That is remarkable because a lot of summer evening would have me walk the four blocks to Lynn Shore and spend an hour or so, after an early supper. That was before cell phones so it took work to lug my 35 mm camera.

(to be continues)

Raleigh, NC: New Train Station

I took a daytrip to the train station in Raleigh, NC The older "Southern RR" train station is being torn down.

A new station is now open and my excursion was to see this new station. This new station is really a remodeled factory or warehouse that the city remodeled. They kept features of the old warehouse in they left the old cranes in the ceiling. This is going to be more that a train station. It will be a transportation center, for buses as well as trains. There has been talk of commuter rail and light rail in the region, but that may be years away.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

As I said in an earlier post, I have interest and non-interest in certain things on vacation or excursions. I am not a beach, amusement park, or recreation person. I may look at and may photograph a ski area but you will never catch me skiing, intentionally. I like the ocean view but not swimming in the ocean. I will go by and enjoy a visit to a restore village, or an old house that has been preserved. I might even visit a historic site. So, in looking at Boston, a visit to the bay is to see the bay not to use the bay for recreation. OK I love the beach to people watch (girl watch). I go to the state fair, not to ride rides but to look at the exhibits and animals. I do like to watch the people riding rides and playing the concessions.

One thing I concluded was that both of my train watching sites were not so good. I selected another on the Lowel Line, that had a low platform and nice view of the train (I think) West Medford. As I looked at it on the map I came across a historic site, not far: Royall House and Slave Quarters. I put in my idea list and could visit it, on a future day-trip or extended time away. I than looked up other historic and interesting places to visit on a future trip. I may or may not visit them.

I took out some previously outline excursions and might take one of them. I did make some alterations to them and look at alternative versions. I like to go to Florida, Miami, Orlando, and Jacksonville. Another good excursion starts with a overnight to Chicago and than to Memphis, to see a suspended monorail. There are others, that I have done, each with variations.

Final Notes On This Excursion

The train loaded in Boston and home I go. I actually got some sleep, on the train. 10:30 the next morning I arrive in Richmond, Main Street. So as the train departs, . . .

I reflect on how it could be better while omitting the shortfalls and I begin looking at future trips.

One thing that I do not always have control is the nature of platforms. At 128, there were two platforms, one northbound and the other southbound. They were high platform. When I take and look at pictures and video I want to see the full train, top to bottom. A high platform will hide the wheels sets/ This arrangement can overlook this problem with videoing accross the track. It means being at the end of the platform on the side where the train will load. You video that train before it get to the platform while the other direction is not obscured by the platform. When I looked Anderson, It had the disadvantage of having high platforms, central of the two lines. I do not like to use these as watch sites. It seemed from the research that the parking lot was an alternative, however my research was wrong. Another drawback at Anderson was that I could not go all the way to the end of the platform, in one of the directions. I had done some research on Winchester and it would have been better, if my research was correct. I prefer low platforms.

One note at this point, this was mostly a train watching trip. As I look at other trips have varying degrees of train and sight watching. As I plan ahead, there are things that I like and things that I don't. I am not into amusement parks. I love the high view as in cityscapes and landscapes. I do love architecture, but I do not duplicate my pics, of styles, too often.

As I planned this excursion, I wanted on south side watching location. Amtrak stops at 128, so this station had a good advantage. The alternatives were to go into South Station or Back Bay and took a local commuter to another station. The arrangement of platforms overcame (if set up was right) the high platform problem. I wanted a northside watching location, as well. I chose the Lowell Line because it had the Downeaster. I did look at other sites on the line. However, I change lines when I thoughts the trains on that line were not running. I had looked at Lynn, MA. It was a place I lived, way back then. It was high and central platform. Only one other stop, outbound and before the lines split. It had a low platform. The schedule was not ideal, but I could make it work. But I chose the alternative. Maybe next time, I will use better.

Midday and Afternoon

From Cedar Grove I made my way to the Airport Station to see the Blue Line. I normally would not bother with the Blue Line. However, the Blue Line is duel power. That is, while underground, it is third rail, which is interesting but not something that I would video. Once it surfaces, the blue line is a trolley or overhead electric. It is at The Airport station that the pantographs go up going outbound and come down inbound.

After Airport Station, I make my way to North Station. You may remember that I had planned to take commuter rail out the Lowell Line and watch at Anderson. Also, than in looking at the schedule last week, I learned that trains were being substituted by buses along the line due to track work. I than chose to go out another line to photograph and video North Station Trains.

I arrived at North Station and found out that I misread the schedule. The Lowell Line trains were running and was only substituted by buses, on weekends. I think that when I checked the schedule last week it was on a weekend, so no trains then. I now had the decision to either change my itinerary back to Lowell or take my substitute. I chose to take the Lowell Line. At Anderson I spent a long afternoon watching seven trains, one which was Amtrak Downeaster.

After these three hours of railfanning, I made my way back to North Station and out past Copley Square to Northeastern University Station on the Green Line. This is the first above ground station on this branch of the Green Line. When I first visited Boston, the Green lines major cars were the old PCC Electric Streetcar. Some people call the Green Line the Green Line Trolley. When I worked their the alternated the PCC with the LRV, a newer light rail vehicle. There are several generations of LRV's on the Green Line and the old PCC cars were move to Mattapan Line which I saw first.

This ended my day of Train watching and now I made my way to South Station. I arrived with enough time to explore.